Body

Tel Aviv, Israel, May 13, 2010 – Newly published data confirm a non-invasive Respiratory Stress Response (RSR) can quickly and accurately measure the presence of significant coronary artery disease (sCAD), the leading cause of cardiovascular death worldwide. Patients in the study with sCAD had a lower RSR compared to patients without.

Boston, MA -- Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) researchers and colleagues seeking to block invasion of healthy red blood cells by malaria parasites have instead succeeded in locking the parasites within infected blood cells, potentially containing the disease.

The findings reveal an essential step in the biology of the most common and severe malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, and offer a new drug target for fighting one of the world's most common and dangerous infections.

DALLAS – May 18, 2010 – The age-old question of why men store fat in their bellies and women store it in their hips may have finally been answered: Genetically speaking, the fat tissue is almost completely different.

Tucson, Ariz. -- Astronauts are known to have a higher risk of getting sick compared to their Earth-bound peers. The stresses that go with weightlessness, confined crew quarters, being away from family and friends and a busy work schedule - all the while not getting enough sleep - are known to wreak havoc on the immune system.

GALVESTON, Texas — For years, researchers have known that resistance exercise training –such as weightlifting, in which muscles work against gravity or another force — can be one of the most effective ways to fight the debilitating muscle loss caused by aging. But many older people are unable to get the full benefits of such training because they suffer from conditions such as arthritis that prevent them from lifting enough weight to stimulate muscle growth.

One in four people over the age of 70 suffers from gait disturbance. To prevent falls, specific treatment should be given. In the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, Klaus Jahn and colleagues describe methods of differential diagnosis and therapy (Dtsch Arztebl Int 107[17]: 306-16).

(PHILADELPHIA) Bladder cancer often becomes aggressive and spreads in patients despite treatment, but now researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson have identified a protein they believe is involved in pushing tumors to become invasive – and deadly.

Japanese research group led by Prof. Makoto Tominaga and Dr. Takaaki Sokabe (National Institute for Physiological Sciences: NIPS) found that TRPV4 ion channel in skin keratinocytes is important for formation and maintenance of barrier function to prevent dehydration. Their finding was reported in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Promoting parent involvement has been a big part of efforts to improve school performance. A new study has found that children whose parents were more involved across elementary school had fewer problem behaviors and better social skills, but that children's academics weren't affected.

Elementary-school-age children from poor families are more vulnerable to the effects of poor sleep than their peers. That's the finding of a new study that assessed the ties between children's sleep and their emotional development.

The study, by researchers at Auburn University, appears in the May/June 2010 issue of the journal Child Development.

A new study on preschoolers attending full-day child care in licensed day care homes has found increases in cortisol, a stress hormone, when the children are in child care that exceeds their levels at home. The increases were larger in day care homes where providers were intrusive or overcontrolling.

The study, in the May/June 2010 issue of the journal Child Development, was conducted by researchers at the University of Minnesota, Georgetown University, and the Oregon Social Learning Center.

SALT LAKE CITY—Researchers have long wondered why the people of the Tibetan Highlands can live at elevations that cause some humans to become life-threateningly ill – and a new study answers that mystery, in part, by showing that through thousands of years of natural selection, those hardy inhabitants of south-central Asia evolved 10 unique oxygen-processing genes that help them live in higher climes.

For women with mild heart failure, device therapy is an extremely attractive option to prevent progression of the disease, according to a study presented today at the Heart Rhythm Society's 31st Annual Scientific Sessions. Women with mild heart disease who had a cardiac resynchronization device combined with a defibrillator (CRT-D) implanted had a 70 percent reduction in heart failure alone and a 72 percent reduction in death from any cause. Men received some benefit from the therapy, but not the out-of-the-park results seen in women.

Researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a gene in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae that might be important for ethanol production from plant material, providing insights into the bioethanol alternative to 'fossil fuels'. Combining new high-throughput genome sequencing technology with traditional genetic methods, this study highlights the previously unknown potential of natural S. cerevisiae strains to convert five-carbon sugars such as xylose into ethanol. Details are published May 13 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics.

ATLANTA, GA (May 13, 2010) -- A national summit of medical professionals meeting last month in Atlanta called for the creation of consensus scan techniques as a way of addressing the concerns of patients undergoing CT scans -- a common medical imaging procedure that uses X-rays to show cross-sectional images of the body.